WBOY-TV
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| City | Clarksburg, West Virginia |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WOWK-TV,WTRF-TV,WVNS-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | November 17, 1957 |
Former call signs | WBLK-TV (CP, 1954–1957)[1] |
Former channel number(s) |
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| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 71220 |
| ERP | 12.25kW |
| HAAT | 262 m (860 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 39°17′5.7″N80°19′44.8″W/ 39.284917°N 80.329111°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WBOY-TV(channel 12) is atelevision stationlicensed toClarksburg, West Virginia,United States, servingNorth Central West Virginiaas an affiliate ofNBCandABC.Owned byNexstar Media Group,the station maintains studios on West Pike Street in downtown Clarksburg, and its transmitter is located east of downtown andUS 50.
The stationidentifies on-airas "Clarksburg–Fairmont–Morgantown"even though the third city is considered to be part of thePittsburghmarket.Despite this, WBOY-TV operates anews bureauin Morgantown which makes it the onlycommercial stationto have facilities there.
History[edit]
The station was launched on November 17, 1957. It was the second television station in its small market. WBOY was originally intended to be the ABC affiliate for all of North-Central West Virginia. However, the area's intended NBC affiliate,Parkersburg'sWTAP-TV,did not have a signal strong enough to reach Clarksburg andWeston.North-Central West Virginia is a very ruggeddissected plateauand WTAP's analog signal onUHFchannel 15 was not strong enough to carry across the terrain. After it became clear that Parkersburg and Clarksburg were going to be separate markets, WBOY joined NBC and remains with the network to this day. However, it retained a secondary ABC affiliation for many years. Its original owner was Friendly Broadcasting, who owned several stations includingWSTVinSteubenville, Ohio.Rust Craft sold the station to Northern West Virginia TV Broadcasting Company in 1964.
Imes Communications ofColumbus, Mississippi,who also owned that city'sCBSaffiliateWCBI-TVbought the station in 1976, as well as ABC affiliateWMUR-TVinManchester, New Hampshire.At that time, WBOY dropped the remainder of its ABC programming, allowing it to become a full NBC affiliate; as a result, cable systems began importing Pittsburgh'sWTAE-TVfor ABC programming. In early 2001,Hearst Television(the owner of WTAE-TV) acquired WBOY and WMUR from Imes; Hearst's acquisition of WBOY was finalized on April 30, 2001. In 2000, the FCC started to allow a company to own multiple stations with overlapping coverage areas. However, Hearst opted to keep WTAE-TV (one of its longtimeflagshipstations) and sold WBOY toWest Virginia Media Holdings(which was creating a statewide "network" of stations to share resources) in September 2001; the sale closed on December 13 of that year.
WBOY launched a new seconddigital subchannelwith ABC programming on August 1, 2008, with the branding "Your ABC". Sister stationWTRF-TVinWheelingalso launched an ABC subchannel at the same time. Previously, both the Clarksburg–Weston–Fairmont and Wheeling–Steubenville markets were served by WTAE as thede factoaffiliate whileWDTVaired selectABC Sportsprogramming.
On November 17, 2015,Nexstar Broadcasting Groupannounced that it would purchase the West Virginia Media Holdings stations, including WBOY-TV, for $130 million.[3]Under the terms of the deal, Nexstar assumed control of the stations through atime brokerage agreementin December 2015, with the sale of the license assets completed on January 31, 2017.[4]
News operation[edit]
After being acquired by West Virginia Media Holdings, the station upgraded its news operation and built secondary studios in Morgantown on Scott Avenue. A major emphasis was placed on news from that town in the hopes of increasing ratings and thus getting the town reassigned to the Clarksburg/Fairmont market. The move made WBOY the highest rated station inMonongalia Countyaccording toNielsen ratingsbeating even Pittsburgh stations. The channel produces a large amount of sports content relative toWest Virginia University,located in that town, for use by the other member stations. Today, it is the only former West Virginia Media Holdings station to have the lead in local news ratings in its respective market.
Nexstar Media produces a half-hour evening newscast that airs at 5:30 p.m. The newscast, titledWest Virginia Tonight,is broadcast live fromWOWK'sCharlestonstudios in high definition on WOWK, WBOY, WVNS, WTRF and WDVM and is anchored by Mark Curtis and Amanda Barren. WBOY-DT2 simulcasts the weekday editions of12 Newsat 5 a.m., 6 a.m., noon, 5, 5:30, 6, and 11 p.m. It does not simulcast weekend broadcasts from the main channel. In addition, there is a public affairs program calledInside West Virginia Politicshosted by Mark Curtis, airing Sundays at on all five Nexstar West Virginia stations.
On April 1, 2013, WBOY became the second station in the market and the last station owned by West Virginia Media Holdings to upgrade its local newscasts to high definition. With the upgrade came new graphics and a new music package (Aerial by Stephen Arnold).[citation needed]
Notable former staff[edit]
- Natalie Tennant– formerWV Secretary of State
- Irv Weinstein– later the longtime anchor atWKBW radioandtelevisioninBuffalo, New York[5]
- Erik Wells– former Democratic member of theWest Virginia Senate
Technical information[edit]
Subchannels[edit]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WBOYNBC | NBC |
| 12.2 | 720p | WBOYABC | ABC | |
| 12.3 | 480i | 4:3 | Escape | Ion Mystery |
| 12.4 | Laff | Laff |
Analog-to-digital conversion[edit]
WBOY-TV shut down its analog signal, overVHFchannel 12, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 52, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 12.[7][8]
References[edit]
- ^"FCC History Cards for WBOY-TV"(PDF).
- ^"Facility Technical Data for WBOY-TV".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
- ^"Nexstar Buys 4 W.Va. TVs For $130M".TVNewsCheck.November 17, 2015.RetrievedNovember 17,2015.
- ^Consummation Notice,CDBS Public Access,Federal Communications Commission,Retrieved February 1, 2017.
- ^"Staffannouncer Presents: Sandy Beach with Irv Weinstein & Stan Roberts 1988 WMJQ".WMJQ.1988.Archivedfrom the original on December 19, 2021.RetrievedMay 30,2021.
- ^"Digital TV Market Listing for WBOY".RabbitEars.Info.RetrievedJanuary 26,2017.
- ^Transmission Complete: WBOY Broadcasting In Digital,WBOY-TV, February 17, 2009
- ^"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on August 29, 2013.RetrievedMarch 24,2012.
